Edward A. (Buddy) Bishop, who has served as The Jockey Club’s registrar since 1984, will retire at year’s end and will be succeeded by Rick Bailey, it was announced today by Ogden Mills Phipps, the chairman of The Jockey Club.

“For the past 20 years, Buddy has consistently improved our Registry operations and during that time, he has done everything in his power to ensure the integrity of The American Stud Book,” Phipps said. “He has represented us well in dealing not only with owners, breeders and trainers, but also with identifiers, stewards and other personnel at racetracks.

“He has also made immeasurable contributions in his interactions with foreign registries and racing and breeding organizations and he will be missed, personally and professionally, by all of those groups.”

Bishop served on the International Stud Book Committee (ISBC) and in the International Departmental Meeting, and in those capacities he visited and worked with breeding and racing officials in Barbados, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, among many other countries.

For 19 years, he assisted Breeders’ Cup officials with identification of foreign horses at the Breeders’ Cup Championships.

As registrar of The Jockey Club, he was also responsible for approving all horse names and he always did his best to protect the horse, the sport of Thoroughbred racing and, in some cases, even track announcers.

“We are immensely grateful for his many years of service to The Jockey Club and to the industry,” Phipps added.

Bailey joined The Jockey Club’s Registry staff in May of 1988. He was appointed manager of registration services in 1997 and then promoted to associate registrar in January 2002, working closely with Bishop in both capacities to administer the Principal Rules and Requirements of The American Stud Book.

Bailey and his wife, Tonya, live in Lexington with their two children.

His father is Logan Bailey, vice president and general manager of the Daily Racing Form’s Lexington, Ky. office.